Oh, Colorado

This weekend I went snowboarding with David, Britney and Britney's friend from South Carolina, Lindsey. We left at 7AM on Saturday morning with the intention of getting up to the snow park around 8:30, since it's normally an hour and a half drive. However, soon after getting on the highway, we saw signs saying it will be a much much longer drive.

Boy, those signs weren't kidding. Between the weather conditions (a good downfall of snow) and the traffic (too many cars on the street), we found ourselves creeping along the road. I was annoyed. We had a limited amount of time to be snowboarding and these conditions were simply shortening our time on the slopes. I soon got into a "funk" where I just wanted to turn around and spend the day in Denver. Even though I didn't have any alternative plans, I would have enjoyed simply being in my apartment reading, rather than being stuck in traffic on a snowy cold day. I figured the slopes would have nice snow but poor visibility, which would further limit the fun on the mountain to be had by yours truly.

Our destination: Arapahoe Basin!

At least I couldn't really complain because I had my pass and David was driving, so it was basically a free day on the slopes minus the time lost in transit. We made it up in about 3 and a half hours and David and I hopped on the slopes. We thought we'd do a few runs before lunch and he wanted to explore the top of the mountain. We got up there and it was a white-out basically. No fun. That's when we decided to grab some lunch. Britney and Lindsey happened to be grabbing lunch at the same time, so we ate together. We planned on meeting up after lunch at around 3:30 at David's car for the drive back.

Throughout this entire period, I maintained my "funk" and hoped to just get kicked out of it. I wanted to call someone but my phone had no service. Instead, I suffered through the cold thinking "I'm a California girl who is truly a fair-weather snowboarder. I don't care that I moved to Colorado and a lot of my peers are intense, mainly David and my boss Dusty, I want the sun out already!" Then I tried a little tree-action, where of course I go super duper slow down the hill, and I stared to have fun! I got into it since it was a nice combo of a challenge, workout and downhill speed. However, Britney and Lindsey got cold after a few runs and decided to call it a day. David and I did two more runs and then met them at the car.

This is where the adventure started!

We left the ski resort around 3, after which we filled up on gas and were on our way by 3:30. On the way home, there's a large tunnel (Eisenhower Tunnel) that runs along the continental divide that you must drive through to get from the mountains to Denver. It is a 1.65 mile long tunnel at an elevation of 11,000 feet. It is also at the summit of the highway from the mountains to Denver. As we rode along the highway to Denver, the snow continued to fall (about 4 new inches that day by 4PM) and the traffic was piling up. There were a few emergency vehicles driving by as we inched our way towards the tunnel. Another detail you need to know is that they  meter the traffic through the tunnel due to the danger of carbon dioxide build up.

So as we drove along the highway, our car started to stall--at least I think that's what it's called when the wheels are turning and the car isn't going forward. It started to smell a bit bad and we weren't sure what to do since we were in the middle lane and couldn't go anywhere. Additionally, we were sliding around on the ice a bit, but luckily David is excellent at steering a car in ice so we stayed safely in our lane. Eventually he suggested Britney and Lindsey get out and check on the tires (since one of his indicator lights came on the dash board and it said something about tire pressure or something...I looked it up but can't remember!) Britney soon came back and said they should just push the car. That's exactly what Britney and Lindsey did: got behind the car and started pushing. We got a bit momentum built up and hoped we would just gain traction and be on our way.

 At least our car didn't look like this!

Or this!!

Unfortunately, traction was not to be gained at that point. Soon after David said we needed another push. I offered to help (I not only felt bored, I also wanted to help and push a CAR). Another bad thing was that I was wearing old pink Ugs I bought at Good Will and they have absolutely no traction on them. Britney and I pushed our little hearts out, got some momentum going for the car and then had to run to catch up to the slow moving vehicle. We climbed inside to warm up and huffed like we'd never worked out before.

This is me, looking super cute, by a green field, pushing a car in my pink shoes. Ok, you caught me. The only true thing in this picture is the pink shoes I was wearing. If only our experience had been this cute...

After a bit, we needed another push, and another, and another. As we were pushing, many cars went around us while others started spinning out too. One person suggested David put the car in low gear and slowly press the gas. Meanwhile, David did everything he possibly could do in order to keep the car in the middle lane (we couldn't get enough control over the car to switch lanes) and travel forward. Others rolled down their windows to smile, laugh or shake their heads--one person even said "Hey, don't I know you?" and as we turned around took a picture of us.

Surprisingly few people, a total of 2 actually, got out of their cars to help us. Although it does make sense, considering how many other peoples' cars were sliding around, we were hoping a few hunky guys would help us push that darn car.

I have to admit though I did get pretty into it. What more excitement can you ask for then rushing around pushing a car up a hill in the snow? It's a lot more fun than just sitting in stop and go traffic! At one point I ran up to a car in front of us and helped push his car for a bit. I was pumped and ran to go help Britney push David's car. As I did that, I hit a bit of ice and my legs flew out from below me and I landed square on my butt. No harm done luckily and I was back up on my feet ready to push.

 

This is also me, falling...well it may be a man with a briefcase, but I still looked somewhat like this as I fell!

At another point, Britney and I were pushing the car and I looked over to see her hair band about to fall out. I told her this and she tried to get it, but it ended up falling on the ground. She said, "Don't worry about it, I have more," to which I strongly responded "No. No men are left behind on this adventure!" and I bent over and grabbed it along with a ball of snow.

Those are the guys I was hoping would come help us with our adventure! (Well, I'd imagined them being pretty super hot, but these are still big, strong men with big, strong muscles...not unlike my own ;) haha)

We slowly made our way up to the tunnel but as we did so David's car kept gaining more momentum as Britney, Lindsey and I started falling further and further behind. We were slowly walking up the side of the highway towards his car as another car struggled up the highway. There were only a few cars on the road at that point as the cars behind us kept swirling in their spot and not progressing towards the tunnel.

Then, our hero arrived. Some sort of truck with this tool that could PUSH cars! He worked for Colorado Transportation and said he could help us. We happily climbed into the car and waited to be pushed to safety. As the man started bumping David's bumper with his car, we continued to not go very far. The man yelled at David to drive the car, to which David said "I AM!" I looked down and saw the car was in Park. He had put it in Park while he waited for Britney, Lindsey and I to catch up to his car. Thankfully, after he put it in Drive, we coasted towards the tunnel. There was a moment of panic as we were being pushed forward and a car in front of us was sliding in our path, but the man pushing us saw this and stopped our movement.

Finally, we were home-free. We made it through the tunnel and on the other side the road was a bit more cleared. The other side of the road, going up the hill at the point, were a bunch of cars struggling just like we were. I guess there are a lot of small SUV-like cars that don't have 4-wheel drive, like David's car, that struggled on Saturday. Thank goodness we left early in the day so we were doing this adventure in the day light. We made our way back to Denver to find that there had been some snow accumulation in the metro area as well.

I'm happy to say that David's car is OK along with all of his passengers. I didn't mind the excitement once I figured we were going to be safe if only a bit later than expected. I liked the exercise and entertainment, but I'm sure if I were behind the wheel like David was, I'd feel very differently about the day. I don't want that to ever happen again, but for a first time experience...what a first time!

Not to brag or anything, but I think I did save the day. Between my huge muscles, surplus of bravery and overall excellent physique...just don't tell Britney, Lindsey or David!!!